Phone Gap is a well-known term in the app development industry. It is actually a mobile development framework that enables us, the programmers to develop apps for varying mobile devices. This is done with the help of HTML5, CSS3 and last but not the least JavaScript. The older languages that were specific to devices, languages as in Objective-C are not used. It has some specific functions such as HTML wrap up and also wrapping up of JavaScript and CSS code. All of these functions depend on the platform of the device that it will be implemented on.

Another feature of this framework involves rendering all the layouts according to web views thereby replacing the age old method with the use of User Interface framework. It thus helps JavaScript and HTML to work hand in hand with the device. It is because it doesn’t involve any native framework that the applications that are developed from it cannot be regarded as purely native. These apps are not truly web-based either. These apps that have Phone Gap as their framework require access to APIs of native devices and hence are known as hybrids.

The software because of which this framework is available to us is Apache Cordova. This framework has several features that work outstandingly well over a great array of devices with varying screen sizes and operating systems.

How Phone Gap helps in building applications?

The logic used for the core of this framework is JavaScript and the applications are rendered with the use of HTML5 and CSS3. The HTML5 does provide access to hardware such as camera, the accelerometer and GPS. Although the browser support of devices based on HTML5 is not performed consistently, this is mostly observed in older android versions. This is a challenge to overcome which the HTML5 is embedded by the framework with the help of foreign function interface. This is embedded in the native web view and thus it can access the native resources present in the device.

How it helps us?

Phone Gap allows us to add newer functionalities. This is known as JavaScript. The outcome of this is that a connection is established between the HTML5 page and the native layer of the device. The user can easily access compass, accelerometer, file system and many more with the help of this framework that consists of native plug-ins.

There are also various complications that may arise due to Phone Gap one of which is that there are various applications that run slower with this framework setup but run at a faster pace with native setups. This framework also supports development of various operating systems such as iOS, Blackberry and others. It supports most features of operating systems including iphone 3G, android (1-4.4), windows phone, Bada, Symbian, webOS, Tizen, Firefox OS. It supports most of the features of all these operating systems and hence is very useful in terms for a new framework.